Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-28

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people believe that it is best to accept a bad situation, such as an unsatisfactory job or shortage of money. Others argue that it is better to try and improve such situations.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Many people think that it is better to accept difficult circumstances, such as unsatisfying career or lack of money while others believe that it is advantageous to try to take action to improve their situation. Although it is okay to accept such hardships because hardships are a part of life where people can experience difficulties and struggle, I firmly believe that it is better to try to improve your current situation in order to be sucessful,.

On the one hand, people who argue that accepting unfavourable circumstance is good believe because facing such situations is a part of life. This is due to the fact that many experienced people have faced such circumstances. For instance, many wealthy people have gone broke in their life or even have been unsatisfied with their co-workers once in their life. However, I believe that acceptance of such events is not good enough.

On the another hand, individuals who reason that it is better to try and improve such events

believe so because in order to be achieve success in life improvement is needed. Being broke or having poor job should just be the stepping stone and people should thrive to be the better version of themselves. For example, most of the successful person who have faced hardships such as having lack of money or doing a job that they do not like have worked hard in their life and have become successful. For this reason, in my view, trying to uplift from such events is better.

In conclusion, accepting bad circumstances is a part of life, I believe, working hard in order to improve such situtations is important rather than staying in that situation.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both views—accepting difficult circumstances versus trying to improve them—and provides a clear personal opinion throughout. The ideas are generally relevant, though some arguments tend to be slightly repetitive or under-developed, particularly when discussing why people accept bad situations. For instance, stating that "many wealthy people have gone broke" is somewhat weak in supporting the view of acceptance. However, the student successfully takes a clear stance in the introduction and maintains it through the body paragraphs and conclusion, fulfilling the core requirements of Task Achievement at a Band 6 level.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a clear overall progression with standard organisational markers such as "On the one hand" and "In conclusion". Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different arguments. However, cohesion is occasionally faulty or mechanical, and referencing is not always clear; for example, the phrase "On the another hand" contains a grammatical error in cohesion/transition. Furthermore, the linking of ideas within sentences can feel repetitive. Despite these flaws, the essay remains coherent and easy to follow, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptors for Coherence and Cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using terms like "unfavourable circumstance," "stepping stone," and "hardships." However, there are noticeable word choice errors and awkward collocations, such as "unsatisfying career" instead of "unsatisfactory career," "poor job" instead of a "poorly paid job," and "achieve success in life improvement is needed" (punctuation/phrasing error). Additionally, spelling slips occur, such as "sucessful" and "situtations." While attempts are made to use less common vocabulary, inaccuracies keep the lexical score at a Band 6 level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including conditional and concessive clauses such as "Although it is okay to accept such hardships because..." There are, however, several grammatical errors throughout the text, including article omissions ("having poor job"), subject-verb agreement issues ("most of the successful person who have faced"), and preposition errors ("gone broke in their life"). Although these errors are frequent, they rarely impede communication, allowing the reader to grasp the writer's meaning without significant difficulty, which firmly places this performance at Band 6.

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